Newb to cloth diapering

MrsMCBMar2014

Hello! I'm a Newb to cloth diapering. My husband and I are expecting our first baby together late January/Early February. I'm an "experienced" mom as I have a 13yo DS. I used disposable diapers for DS as I was young and not too interested in cloth diapering. Now that I'm older, I feel that my DH and I,should save some serious moolah by CDing. I'm trying to convince him as he thinks it's unsanitary. I explained that we would not be washing poop in the washer, it would just be the smell/stains getting cleaned. I then told him we would likely be washing poop out of clothes and sheets from blow outs, etc.

With that said, I have searched and searched but I'm not even sure where to start. Do I buy my own or register for them? I'm really liking the bumgenius diapers and plan to register/buy them.

Any tips as to how to convince DH? My mom is excited because she did CDing with me and my brother way back in the day with plastic pants, pins and prefolds.

ElleBeeDub

You might start with the Cloth Diaper 101 series on YouTube. I've heard they're an awesome crash course. Also, do you have any stores in your local area that specialize in cloth diapers? They can be a great resource to figure out what's what, and they sometimes have classes as well. 

I did register for some diapers, but I also purchased an entire stash (when I started, I bought my stash 2nd hand, so any diapers I got from my registry were just fun additions rather than necessities). 

Are you planning on using cloth right from the get-go? If so, the Bumgenius won't fit for a little while (unless you get the newborn size ones). I know they say they go from birth to potty training, but they lie. Newborns have those tiny chicken legs, so one-size (OS) diapers don't fit them in the beginning. Lots of people (myself included) prefer prefolds and covers for the newborn phase because they're so much less expensive than other options.

The thing that tipped my husband over the edge was the estimated cost savings, but I'm guessing you've gone through that with him? 

I'd also like to add that you might want to consider getting various brands and types of diapers when you start buying. Some people will buy an entire stash of one kind and be blissfully happy with it. That doesn't work for a lot of people, though. Different brands fit different body shapes, and you may find yourself loving a style that you didn't expect.

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Kelly11235

I'm just going to chime in with "register for them".

If you can get someone else to buy them for you, go for it.

I registered for the ones available through where I had my registry, and then bought ones that weren't available through the registry.

I'd maybe consider buying used, if you;re planning on using cloth for the newborn phase.  One-size options are cool, but not usually usable on day 1.

ThereBeDragons

Register and hope you get a few but plan on buying everything just in case. My best friend bought me a set of diaper covers off my registry but that was the only cloth diaper purchase off it. I knew going in, though, that I'd need to buy in so the 300ish$ purchase of diapering supplies (wet bags, butt creams, prefolds, covers etc) wasn't a surprise.

What eventually sold my DH was 

1) cost savings. He's not super thrifty but the idea of spending all that money for disposables was rough. To give you a good example- we wound up buying two cases of newborn pampers because baby was a preemie and too small for even the newborn cloth we had on hand. Two cases cost us 50$ and lasted us around 2 weeks. Ouch.

2) convenience. This is a strange one, but if the cost won't do it, maybe this will. No midnight runs to the grocery store because you ran out of diapers unexpectedly. No foul smelling garbage bags to sit around in the house or garage until garbage day. Just one extra load of laundry every 2 days. Heck, I do the laundry so as far as DH is concerned, cloth diapering is the ultimate in lazy convenience.

3) one diaper sealed the deal in the end- the BG Albert print. DH is a math nut and the cool factor of a cute math diaper on our baby's butt made him go from "This is a sensible idea that we should probably do" to "Lets do this!". When all else fails, go for the cute factor because, really, there are so many adorable options available in every kind of interest. Find a diaper print that would wow your DH

TugboatSheila

Yeah the unsanitary thing is, understandable for someone who doesn't understand much about CDing, but a little silly.

Think about it. Before I prepped my stash (forgive me, I'm a FTM) I had been around babies almost my whole life. I've been pooped on, peed on, puked on and have seen babies poop, pee and puke on themselves. All of those soiled clothes just go into the washer and get washed like anything else, only to be worn again. The care I've taken thus far with my diapers is far beyond anything I would do for a onesie or my own clothes. It's actually MORE sanitary. 

And even if you were using disposables you and DH WILL get poop, pee and puke on you. Which you already know, but at least this way you are taking more precautions to "control the poop".

I actually got DH convinced with a combination of money savings and that we wouldn't have to have buckets of soaking poopy diapers around (diaper sprayer and spray pal). He has since decided he'd rather use 2 spatulas to scrap poop into the toilet then swish. Whaaaa????? He actually did his own research and told me that would be better. #floored.

Sorry, on a tangent. Also, I wouldn't go all in and convince him of all the things. Pick one thing first to talk to him about then another thing or else he's (if he's anything like my DH) more likely to shut down. 

freezorburn

When I was a graduate student, I had the experience of visiting a working landfill. That was about 8 years ago. I still feel dirty. 

I know it's just a drop in the bucket, but I feel like using cloth diapers is a great way to reduce our family's contribution to landfills. Also, while we live in an urban area, we have a lot of foxes in the area and they love getting into stinky trash. When we first moved here and our CDs were still in transit during the first week, the foxes went to town on the disposables we used that week. There was a huge mess on the sidewalk and street in front of our house. That's hardly sanitary.

Modern washing machines are a godsend. This board is a great place to learn about how to handle and store your dirty diapers, and adjusting your wash routine if a problem arises. Oh, and shopping for all the cute fluff.

Kelly11235

Also...you can sell cloth diapers when you're done using them, but nobody is going to want to buy used disposables.  (Unless they're into that sort of thing.)

MrsMCBMar2014

Thank you thank you thank you.  I appreciate all your words of wisdom.  I plan to sit down with DH after we move and go through the Cloth Diapering 101 videos on youtube.  That'll definitely help.

I'm on a fb group that specializes in swapping/buying/trading/etc so I'm definitely going to check out buying some used of each type and see which baby likes best. I have so many months left before LO is born that I have time to research and purchase.  I just wish LO was here NOW and not in 8.5 months.

ABColeslaw

I was surprised by how many people purchased cloth for us at our sprinkle.  It I think all accounted for I received 6 AIOs, A dozen prefolds, a dozen flats, 3 dozen wipes, 2 wetbags, a pail, and a few pairs of baby legs.  So you might want to put some stuff on your registry.  People were also very interested in passing the dipes around and checking them out.  It was fun. 

I also caution against getting all of one type.  I have several things people told me I would hate that I LOVE and I have things that I thought I'd for sure love that I loath. 

MrsMCBMar2014

potterowl said:

I am due in two months and I registered for cloth diapers just to show people that we are using cloth and not disposables. I only got a few disposables at my shower. But I really did research and read this board a ton to decide what I wanted us to have and then I bought it. Mostly bc at that point I knew what I wanted to try and felt picky about having that specific stuff. I also bought a whole stash on a bst board for $50. I sold part of it for $50 so I got almost my whole is stash for free. So my recommendation is to stalk a cloth diaper bst board

I'm on 2 fb groups for Bumgenius.  I am going to wait until after our move to start stocking up on different kinds of diapers to see which one I like the best with baby.  We are going to use newborn disposables for the first month (or until baby fits cloth properly) to ease the transition.  

Thank you all for your words of wisdom.  I'll be on lurking here and there.  Morning sickness, work, moving and all that is a bit crazy but I'm dealing.